For decades, our end-of-year highlight event has brought us together - in a real room - to enjoy personal family history stories, along with tasty seasonal treats, hot apple cider, and Andy Brown's cranberry contribution. Here is last year's description...
"At this meeting we celebrated the season together, along with any genealogical breakthroughs, special stories, favourite websites, interesting documents or other artifacts brought to this gathering"
A change for this year's event requires physical separation; yet this is an opportunity to gather together - with the aid of modern technology.
Zoom is useful, but it has a drawback, in that holding items up to a web camera is often not clear enough for all participants.
So, if possible, when planning to show a web site, or document, or physical item, sending a link or image to President Nancy Trimble (for inclusion in her PowerPoint slides), would be extremely helpful. Her email is: - durhamchair@ogs.on.ca
And, here is theYouTube video recording of this meeting: - https://youtu.be/QhbvCGBkHbo
Join Durham Region Branch as we explore the Ontario Land Registry Website with Marian Bellamy. Marian is a local genealogist and will explain how to search on this website that is replacing the Ontario Land Registry Offices.
The Branch held the AGM and Elections, at this meeting.
The Zoom recording of this meeting is now on YouTube: - https://youtu.be/yk6HjfSoKS0
In addtion, here is Marian's printable form - an aid to Searching Ontario Land Records. APOLROD has created a highly useful pdf document, listing the final resting places for Ontario Land Records, should you need to locate surviving paper records.
Another item came up at the meeting; it was a link to instructions by Wesley Johnson on how to use the Land Records in FamilySearch.org: http://www.wwjohnston.net/famhist/canada-search-famsrch-ont-land.htm
OGS and Ministry officials will be hosting a webinar via Zoom on December 9th, 2020. This hour-long session is geared towards anyone interested in learning how to find and access documents through the ONLAND portal. Registration is mandatory at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkcOuqqz8qGdZ-j8SYJDI92iLxhAsOMVYk
Learn how to turn your scattered, disorganized files into a system that works for you. A few well thought out steps can help you control your clutter, keep consistent records, avoid duplication of effort and be able to communicate what you’ve accomplished in your research.
Lynn Palermo began her family history journey ten years ago, spurred on by the passing of her in-laws. It was then that she picked up the torch as the family genealogist. Lynn is now a freelance writer, genealogy educator, writing coach and family historian. Lynn manages 2 complementary websites: https://thearmchairgenealogist.com (highlighting her educational and research skills), and https://familyhistorywritingstudio.com (for sharing her storywriting magic)
This Zoom presentation will not be re-posted on our YouTube Channel.
The Journal, Art and Life of a Victorian Soldier in Canada" is the sub-title of Marc's book - about a British soldier, Henry Baines, sent to Canada to be one of the protectors of this 'almost' new nation, at a time of great strife in the United States... during an internal war with potentially dangerous consequences for our ancestors. Henry Baines' 1863 summer voyage, circumnavigating Lake Ontario in a sailboat, yielded many insights into those times and into significant shoreline communities in both countries, all gained from his drawings and journal writings.
A recording of Marc Seguin's (copyright) Zoom presentation has been uploaded to the Durham Region Branch's YouTube Channel [https://youtu.be/PDkP4RtCSwc]and on Vimeo [https://vimeo.com/456396974/01417da212].
You’ve had your autosomal DNA test done, but what are your next steps? This talk will focus on the tools available to you on Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage and DNA Painter. We will discuss Match Lists, centiMorgans (cM), chromosome browsers, and other useful tools. You will leave with enough information that you can easily implement some next steps in utilizing your DNA matches.
Come join the Durham Region Branch on Tues. Jun 2, 2020 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) in a virtual meeting. This is open to the public and you can invite friends to join as well.
The recorded video of this ZOOM meeting is available on our YouTube Channel: - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiHiKL0pfzXzG-G9YARS8Sg
Nancy's "DNA Tools Handout", as a PDF document, also contains a list of clickable resources.
[Last year's virtual2020.ogs.on.ca was a great success!]
Bob Dawes showed how to use many free and paid websites to make connections with your English ancestors. Bob Dawes has traveled throughout the UK doing his family history and is experienced in using their many genealogical research sources.
Bob is anexcellent speaker who has presented at several of the Ontario Ancestors Conferences in the past and also at many Durham Region Branch events.
A video of this May 5, 2020 meeting is on our YouTube Channel: - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiHiKL0pfzXzG-G9YARS8Sg
Bob’s handout is at http://tinyurl.com/EnglishConnections
Dr. Amy Barron (Clarington Museums) -
Jennifer Weymark, Archivist, Oshawa Museum
Letters from the Trenches: Oshawa’s WWI Soldiers
Will your ancestor be included in Jennifer's talk? Come and find out? Here is an editted version of the video stream (with some unavoidable audio static) - https://youtu.be/XByXRPS9hy0
Overcoming Brick Walls - strategies and anecdotes for overcoming research dead-ends.
DON'T GIVE UP!!
If, during your research, you have come across a particularly frustrating dead-end,our local panel of experts can help.
At this meeting our panel of experts will solve, or attemtp to solve, some of the most difficult research problems faced by members. However, it is best to send problems, in advance, to durham@ogs.on.ca.
[Now that the meeting is over, here is the link to an editted version: - https://youtu.be/JQffEVGlcDM]
